First of all, meet
my friend. My Kodak DC-120. She goes everywhere
with me and actually helps me slow down, look
around, and sometimes i get frustrated with her,
but overall she's worth it - like any good
friend.

All of the pictures
that i've taken for this site are output from this
camera, and I've never regretted the purchase.
Kodak has even replaced it 2 times and on this unit
i have over 8,000 pictures. The camera goes
hand-in-hand with the 2 battery chargers and
umpteen rechargeable AA batteries.

I'm not a great
photographer by any means, probably just a mediocre
one, but my camera, actually any camera, gives me a
double benefit when i'm on a nature foray. I keep
it in a pouch by my side and whip it out and snap
pictures sometimes just on whimsy. It makes me
pause more often, look more carefully, and when i
come home, get to reexperience the whole thing
again. Frequently what got me excited and curious
on a walk isn't what's interesting in my pictures,
so i look again and it gives me 'questions' to
answer when i go back out.

One of the benefits
of having a digital, instead of film camera is that
i can take tons of pictures and don't have to use
(if i don't want) the complexities of good film
cameras. My photographic philosophy is more "take a
lot of pictures, and one ought to be decent."
Statistically, out of 500 times i look thru the
camera i take only about 100 pictures. Of these
there's about 10 i keep and 1 makes it to the
webpage. That serves me well, and it makes me look
thru the lens a lot more often. So, the camera
becomes my '2nd eyes,' even though you see the pick
of the crop.

Along with a baby
tripod and extra memory cards and batteries, this
is my 'other eyes.' The only things i lack at the
moment are the accessories for close-up and zoom,
to take insect and animal pictures. Someday soon, I
hope.

Bird-caller

Ahh.. While i
consider my fingers necessary equipment, the object
here is my Audubon Bird Call. It stays in my
pocket, ever at the ready to make chirps, clicks,
and nattering bird sounds. I grasp the red wood
part in one hand and twist the keyed metal part and
presto! A chirp. Waggling the stem of it while
twisting madly makes the sounds of some nameless
bird's fwee and whirt and chi-chi-chort. This baby
will stop a Mockingbird cold and spur him on to new
heights of Mockingbird jazz, and usually further up
a tree, too.

The principle of how
it works is that metal against wood when tight
makes a squeaking sound. It doesn't so much imitate
birds as makes them intensely curious about the
sound. Like a stranger speaking a different tongue
in a local country, everybody gathers around to see
what this stranger looks like. Chickadees will
natter at it, and most other birds come closer and
give tentative chirpings. Even if other birds don't
come closer, usually a few of the locals will try
and answer it, thus telling me who's in the area.

The wood part is
painted red to attract women. So far, i haven't had
much luck with that aspect of it.

You
can pick up one of these little babies at
The
Compleat Naturalist shop here in
Asheville, or of course, from their online
store.